The Troubled Lands
When the Cabal decided to cleanse the world of the last vestiges of wild magic and reclaim the southern reaches of Ceilar known as the Wilderlands (WIL der lands), they had one major obstacle in their way. An ancient portal of seemingly limitless power, the Hell Gate had stood open on the Ashara River since the days of Caralos, and not even the Master of the school of Conjuration was certain of how to close it. Then, one day, as if in an act of sudden, divine serendipity, a crimson tower appeared above the Gate, wrapping the portal in an iron and silver "claw" that, while not closing the gate, barred it from use by the creatures beyond. The owner of that tower was the conjurer Aneirin MacDeniol, one of the heroes of the Second Dragon War, who had long before left the realms of mortal man on a quest of his own to reclaim a lost friend and seal the Hell Gate forever. The portal effectively shut down, the Cabal crossed the Great Wall they had built to contain the wild magic and set about their work of cleansing the Wilderlands. Once the last known vestiges of wild magic had been purged, MacDeniol was appointed as Governor for Life of the lands now simply known as Wilder (WIL der), because the Cabal really couldn't say no to the man who held the key to the Hell Gate. Despite the somewhat extortive nature of his rise to power, however, MacDeniol has been by most accounts a very generous ruler, placing the majority of the power in the hands of the mayors and elders of governors of the loosely-defined nation's cities and territories. For the most part, he just seems to want to be left alone, only stepping in when called upon by those he has given power. The Governor welcomed the input of the lizardfolk tribes of the Wintermoor into his counsel and even opened the borders of Wilder to the Warriors of the Broken Tribes -- former enemies -- when their lands were made unsafe for habitation. Most citizens speak of him in kind terms and choose not to question that fact that a very large and well-armored hobgoblin guards the door to his tower. Due to the nature of its rule, Wilder has become known as the "Free Nation". Its laws vary from city to city, town to town, and it welcomes sentient peoples from nearly every race and walk of life beyond its northern wall. That's not to say the territory is without its problems, as its plains are fraught with warring hobgoblin tribes and dangerous creatures, such as displacer beasts and owlbears, originally created by the wild magic that once held sway there. The southern and eastern plains of Wilder were once speckled with barbarian villages, as the broken tribes lived their semi-nomadic lifestyle in the chilly but temperate clime of the lands bordering the mountains that separate them from their ancestral homelands. While the barbarians paid honor to the Government of Wilder, they were free to govern themselves, and do so with a chieftain and elders for each community and a Chief-of-Chiefs, the title claimed through challenge and ritual battle, that usually continues to reside with the community in which he or she was raised. And only a fool would neglect to consider that Wilder is bordered by the World's End Mountains and the Ice Wastes to the south, both of which are largely controlled by the Kingdom of the Frozen Dead and its Lich King, with whom Wilder's Governor had a long and storied animosity. Of course, since MacDeniol's disappearance and assumed death, all of these political concerns are a thing for the history books. Days before the Third Incursion of Kaos, shortly after the archangel Az escaped his prison, MacDeniol dared to summon the celestial to his tower and demand a truce based on the Governor's willingness to accept Az's followers into the nation in prior months. Az, seeing all humans as little more than insects, refused. In response, MacDeniol unleased the power of the Hell Gate, stored in his tower for almost four and a half centuries, in an attempt to destroy the archangel. The resuts were devastating. Not only did Az escape the attempt on his life but the outpouring of chaotic energy washed across Wilder, unleashing a wave of wild magic that nearly destroyed the heart of the nation. Only those settlements on the outskirts, bordering the seas or mountains, escaped the worst of the effects. Centuries later, while the vast majority of the wild magic was shunted into the Feywyld by the wizards and sorcerers working to stabilize the south, the land is still showing the consequences of the Governor's decision, with ocassional shifting landscapes, pockets of unstable magic, and a resurgence in chaotic monstrosities appearing across its landscape. The Warriors of the Broken Tribes took down their camps and villages, moving them north to greener pastures in the borders of Seawn or the southern the plains of Kæryn, where they find more welcome than in the older, more rigidly theocratic northern regions of that country. Most of the citizenry either fled to the outlying settlements or pushed north to find homes among Wilder's allied nations, and the lizard folk of the Winternoor left their swamps, now under constant threat by the bizarre creatures that spawn there, and rejoined their brethren in the northern marshes of Seawn. Nevertheless, along its fringes, the people of Wilder survive. No longer as happy-go-lucky as they once were, they remain most welcoming of all people to those who consider themselves misfits and outsiders. The Troubled Lands are home to every allied race, including expatriated Ædar who refused to lock themselves away from the surface, to Gnomes and halflings, and it has the highest concentration of Sidhborne on the continent. And while a few Lwnasidh from the Faerie Isles can still be found here or there on the mainland, there are more in what remains of Wilder than anywhere else on Ceilar. It is also not unusual to find outcast members of the "evil" races, such as hobgoblins and orcs, living on the fringes of its more civilized societies. Wilder remains a place where all are welcome, "ever open" as its flag declares, though it is less a nation at this point and more a scattered collection of self-sufficient settlements, each with its own government, laws, and eccentricities.Category:Locations Category:Gazeteer